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Safeguarding Public Health Updates

Public health and consumer advocacy groups are attacking Senate legislation designed to tighten oversight of specialized pharmacies such as the one at the center of this past fall’s deadly meningitis outbreak, saying it does not adequately address health risks.

Wednesday night’s tragedy at the West Fertilizer plant is a catastrophic reminder of the threat posed by hazardous chemicals used in thousands of facilities across the nation, and the need for us to take every step to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies.

Our drug approval system for medicines manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry and regulated through the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act is the one of the strongest and safest in the world. However, for the last 20 years the rapidly evolving compounding pharmacies industry has been successful in thwarting regulations at every opportunity.

We’ve already written about the impact that sequestration’s across-the-board cuts will have on food safety. Consumers are understandably troubled, and now it seems that even the meat industry is concerned enough about this problem to write to the President.

“The REINS Act (H.R. 367) would block enforcement of existing health and safety laws by creating new bureaucratic hurdles and impossibly short timelines for approval of critical rules. This bill poses a grave threat to the health and safety of the American people.

This recall highlights our continued need for strong public health and consumer safety standards and protections. Our car safety protections achieve the highest standards of excellence in motor vehicle and highway safety, and they work for us every day to prevent crashes and their high human and financial cost.

After a one-year delay, the FDA finally released two vital food safety rules that will help protect American consumers from unsafe and contaminated food. The proposed rules will improve the safety of produce and establish better preventative controls and practices in food manufacturing.